A Valentine for tropical fruit lovers and chocolate lovers alike.
Those two categories don’t overlap very often at my house. I’m obsessed with tropical fruit. I adore chocolate. But this time of year, I wish chocolate and fruit could stay in their own lanes. There’s no need to combine a sweet-tart berry (or worse yet, citrus) with good dark chocolate. They are not complimentary. Tart-sweet and bittersweet compete. The textures don’t go. Now, I’ll eat it if I have to (ha) but there are better combinations. Strawberries with whipped cream, or dark chocolate with sea salt? I’m all for those.
I know I’m in the minority here, especially after watching The Great British Baking Show. I was horrified when someone mixed fresh passion fruit pulp into a dark chocolate cake. Worse yet, Paul and Pru liked it. 
Here’s something I can offer to the chocolate-and-fruit loving masses: black sapote, “the chocolate pudding fruit.” The flesh is a dark, silky smooth custard. The flavor is not at all tart or “fruity.” It doesn’t take much to convince your taste buds that you are indeed eating chocolate. Why this fruit is not more popular than bananas is, well, bananas. You’ll find them at grove stands in South Florida right now. 
I normally whip them into this mousse, or make this decadent tart, but after planting our own tree a few years ago, I’ve been able to experiment more. It was only a matter of time before I figured out how to make them into my very favorite dessert: brownies.
These are a chocolate triple-threat, with cocoa powder, bittersweet chocolate chips, and of course, the chocolate fruit. I’ve learned there’s a limit to how much fruit you can add before they refuse to set or slice nicely, but all attempts were tasty. Like all brownies, they’re equally delicious with gluten-free flour. They’re rich, dense, and super fudgy. And they’re great with ice cream.
Go ahead, put a cherry on top. If you must.
Black Sapote Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup black sapote pulp about 2 very ripe black sapotes, soft as a marshmallow, almost collapsing
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup flour or all-purpose, gluten-free baking mix
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325.Line an 8x8 pan with two sheets of parchment, criss-crossed, allowing the edges to overlap by an inch or so.Melt the butter or coconut oil and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand-mixer). Stir in the sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. If still warm, allow to cool to room temperature before proceeding. Add eggs, black sapote, and vanilla and beat well. Stir in the flour, then gently fold in the chocolate chips just until evenly distributed. Pour into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean, not wet, just a couple tiny crumbs. Allow to cool as long as you can stand to before slicing.
These look delicious! I wish I had black sapote to try it!
I’ll share some when I get more. I wish we could buy them at stores. It’s crazy how much fruit is out there we never get to try.
I am so freaking intrigued by this fruit! I can’t even imagine what it tastes like, despite your very clear description. One day I’ll track some down!
I’ll ship you some when I get another crop or find them at the grove stand. My crop this year was 3 fruit, but they’re big producers once established. I think they’ll ship well because they take forever to ripen on the counter. It could be the ultimate smoothie fruit. The next açaí.
The Brits and their passionfruit…I don’t get it . Even if the flavor is good, t looks like SNOT. How do they not see this?!
? They scooped it right into the cake batter. Just wrong.
We have a Black Sapote in a big pot. Can’t wait for it to have fruit. This looks delicious!
Yay! Ours is still small but it’s giving us a few fruit a year. I can buy them at grove stands in Pine Island and Homestead, but not in Tampa. Do you ever see them at the farmer’s market or grove stands in Ft. Pierce?
We tried with macadamia oil instead of coconut, and half sugar, half chestnut honey.
Delicious !!!
Thanks, Jerome. I love those substitutes. Can’t wait to try them myself.
Thank you so much! I was looking for a brownie recipe with black zapote for my boyfriend’s birthday and this is perfect! So glad to find it ????
Thanks, Maria! I am so in love with all things black sapote (zapote)! It’s the fruit of my dreams. We had a big crop this year. I’ve made so many delicious chocolatey desserts. I’ll be posting more of them here.
I would love to get my hands on some sapote. Do you know where I can get some in Broward County, FL?
Me too, Nina! I ate my last one a month ago. I think the season is over now. May seems to be peak, at least around Southwest FL. I’m not sure where to find them in Broward, but I know they’re out there. They grow so well in that area. Ask around at local farmer’s markets.
Glad I found the recipe. Made some last night, think it’s my second go round. One correction I’d make is the time. At 30 minutes 325F the center was still pretty wet. I added time 3 times ended up at about 50 minutes to total. They are perfect!
Karim, Davie Fl.
Thanks for the tip. I have noticed black sapotes can be dry and sometimes they’re sticky and soft. I’ll update the recipe with that and make notes next time I make them!
I acquired several seeds from Fairchild Tropical Gardens about 7 years ago during their annual Chocolate Festival. Really enjoyed the smoothie they served there. I planted them in small pots. Eventually several grew into small plants which I planted in the ground about 5 years ago. I believe you need more than one plant in order to allow germination. Last year we harvested several fruit, and made delicious smoothies. This year we have more than a dozen fruits! We are going to make some brownies. Looking forward to the ripening.
I have a friend who gave me 8 fruit from his tree, which is laden with them! I’m so glad I found your recipe. The brownies are incredibly delicious. I didn’t have chocolate chips, but I did have a big bar of 62% Cacao Citrus dark chocolate from Pinellas Chocolate, which I chopped into pieces in lieu of chips…OMG! I’m going to try freezing the pulp so I can make these again!
Thanks for trying my recipe, Leigh!
I’m completely obsessed with black sapote. The pulp freezes perfectly. I’ve been making something like this out of the frozen pulp, but with a peanut butter crust. I need to formalize it into a recipe to post.
I found those Pinellas chocolate bars at Rollin Oats in Tampa. I can only imagine how tasty those brownies would be!
GIRL! I just ordered these from miami fruit. (Holy cow so expensive) but I wanted to try this recipe SOOO much. I hate hate HATE homemade brownie recipes. Gimme boxed stuff every day. But these. THESE! I halved the sugar and added 20 min to cook time. (Im diabetic and my sapote were extra gooey) but man. These hit the spot. They were SOOO good didnt raise my sugar like crazy AND didnt have the kids bouncing off the walls! How cool! So awesome so delicious. Did i mention they werent like fudge OR cake. They were the PERFECT gooey deliciousness they should be. THANK YOU! I have enough for 2 more batches before I probably never splurge that hard again xD
Made these the other day ! Best brownies ever !!!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe ! The next batch will have our home grown macadamia nuts in it.
We love our black sapote tree – picked over 100 good sized fruit this year 🙂
Just moved into our forever home, complete with an orchid of many delights. In Australia, they are at their peak now. Can’t wait to try your recipe. Thankyou for sharing your knowledge as I don’t want to see them go to waste..
Can’t wait to make these. We have a tree and just harvested about 50 sapote!! We get 2 or 3 harvests a year. It’s an amazing fruit and I’m a little bit addicted. The health benefits are amazing. I peel and freeze so I can make smoothies all year round…… but now I’ll be making brownies as well. Thank you
They make the best smoothies! I’m addicted, too. I hope you like the brownies! I updated the recipe for a bit longer cooking time, and there was a comment about doubling the recipe. I plan to test that because many of us need to use up lots of them.
I have about 30 pounds of black sapote right now and am looking forward to this recipe. I’m going to use peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips though and honey in place of sugar. Stoked!!
Lucky you! I’m a peanut butter and chocolate fanatic, but somehow I’ve never used peanut butter chips. I need to try them! I’d love to hear how the honey works out. Might need to bake them longer? Give us an update!
Hi again! It’s black sapote time, especially because of our hard freeze…all of the fruit was picked yesterday, so it wouldn’t freeze on the tree. I made your brownies – by far my favorite sapote recipe – this time adding chopped cayenne pepper toasted pecans and dark chocolate chunks. I think 45-50 minute cooking time works better. At 30 mine were much too gooey in the middle. Thanks!
I double the recipe and use a 9×13 pyrex pan. 45 minutes for sure.
When we start running low on black sapote I’ll use 1/2 sapote and 1/2 avocado! Still delicious and a little moister
Thanks, Robert! I updated the recipe with the longer cooking time. I’m going to try a double batch in the 9×13 next time, too. Half avocado is brilliant. I appreciate the tips!
Hi Leigh! Thanks so much for this. I love what you added. I’m copying it for my next batch. I’m updating the time on the recipe. Thank you very much!
The texture of these is like crossing brownies with bread pudding and so delicious! Great recipe! Came out just like the pictures and is fantastic with raspberries and whipped cream.
Thanks so much, Johanna!
These brownies are SPECTACULAR! Thank you for this creation. Here are some of my personal edits I would like to share: I ended just taking the seeds out and throwing it in with the skin without a problem. I also added some chopped walnuts and maca powder. Also cut the sugar to about 2/3ds and used a vegan egg replacer. Throughly enjoying this choclate goodness with the sapotes!
Thank you, Meggie, for being the brave soul who threw in the skin! I’ve always wondered about that because it’s so messy to try to remove it. Love your additions. I just got two giant black sapotes today and will be adding maca.